Poll: Criminaly prosecution of BP for oil spill

Almost two-thirds of Americans agree "strongly" or "somewhat" that the federal government should pursue criminal charges against BP and other companies involved in the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, according to a new Washington Post/ABC News poll.

The poll, conducted Thursday through Sunday, found that 73 percent of the country feels that the nation's greatest oil spill is a "disaster" with an additional 25 percent ranking it a "serious problem."

"Public complaints against BP are twofold: Most give poor ratings to its reaction to the massive spill, and most blame the company and its drilling partners for taking unnecessary risks that could have caused the spill," the poll reported.

The call for a criminal investigation did produce some partisan divide.

Seventy-four percent of Democrats favored a criminal investigation along with 67 percent of independent voters surveyed. Republicans were divided, with 50 percent favoring pursuit of criminal charges, with 44 percent opposed.

The few dissenting voices on severity of the spill have come from the right side of the political spectrum.

"This is not an environmental disaster: Oil has seeped into this ocean for centuries and will continue to do it," Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, said last week.

Kentucky Republican Senate candidate Rand Paul, in an interview last month, blasted the Obama Administration for its rhetoric about putting a "boot heel" to the throat of BP. "Maybe sometimes accidents happen," Paul added.

There is deep public dissatisfaction with handling of the Deepwater Horizon platform explosion and subsequent spill, according to the WashPost. A multimillion dollar BP advertising campaign has failed to put a dent in it.

Eighty-one percent of those polled gave BP low marks for its response to the spill. But 69 percent of those polled - including 56 percent of Democrats - said the government has done a "not so good" or "poor" job of handling the spill. Only 28 percent gave the feds positive marks.

The poll was conducted June 3 to June 6, with a random national sample of 1,004 adults, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percent.